PPG opened powder coatings research center in Milan

PPG announced the opening of its new European Central Powder Coatings Research and Development (R&D) Center in Milan, Italy.

The facility’s expanded capabilities, which include a customer application center, will enhance and accelerate powder coatings product development. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

The R&D center will focus on innovating powder coatings product development, demonstrating advanced powder technologies and providing best-in-class customer and technical support. The Milan facility is a European hub for cross-technology research and development, hosting laboratories for other businesses that include automotive OEM and refinish coatings.

As per MRC, PPG has entered into an agreement to buy the powder coatings business of Italian company Arsonsisi, boosting its offering in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As part of the deal, PPG will gain Arsonsisi’s highly automated, small- and large-batch powder manufacturing plant in Verbania. The acquisition will also add metallic bonding to the US group’s portfolio. According to PPG, metallic bonding is one of the fastest growing markets for powder coatings used in specialty finishes for automotive, appliance and general industrial applications.

We remind, PPG Industries Ohio Inc. received a patent in Russia for a new coating. The authors of the invention were a group of American specialists. The material is a film-forming composition that ensures the uniformity and appearance of the coating, and also avoids smudges. The material consists of polymer binders, polysiloxane resin, hardener and other substances.

PPG is a leading supplier of powder coatings to the automotive, transportation, appliance, furniture and other markets. The company expanded the business with its 2020 acquisition of Alpha Coating Technologies, which manufactures powder coatings for light industrial applications and heat-sensitive substrates, and its 2021 acquisition of Worwag, which makes liquid, powder and film coatings for industrial and automotive applications. PPG recently agreed to acquire the powder coatings business of Arsonsisi, including a manufacturing plant in Verbania, Italy.
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Songwon appointed Dongbek Park as its new chairman of the board of directors, said the company.

Dongbek Park will take over responsibility as chairman and outside director from CEO Jongho Park, who will remain a member of the board of directors. Before retiring in 2014 Dongbek Park amassed extensive experience working in the chemicals industry and held various senior management positions at Songwon over the years.

“We welcome his broad background and vast experience in the industry, which will allow us to further strengthen the Songwon Group,” said CEO Johngho Park. As part of this restructuring, Songwon’s board will consist of four directors.

As well as Jongho Park, Hans-Peter Wuest and Choung-Sik Kim will continue to serve as Songwon’s executive board members and inside directors. “Songwon’s Board of Directors thanks the former members of the Board, Dieter Morath, Markus Oppliger and Gerhard Schlosser for their many years of dedication and commitment to Songwon,” the company said in a statement.

As per MRC, in October 2021, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat LLC (GNS) signed an agreement for the development of a basic design and a license agreement for the use of Songwon Industrial technology. The contract makes it possible to organize the production of superabsorbent polymers (SAP) based on acrylic acid at the enterprise. The new production will be a continuation of the chain of processing of acrylates into superabsorbent polymers. In the manufacture of products will be used its own raw materials - butanol and propylene.

Songwon Industrial Co., Ltd. - the second in the world in terms of production of polymer stabilizers. The company's product range includes polymer stabilizers, alkylphenols and alkylcresols, PVC stabilizers, plasticizers, organotin, polyurethanes, flocculants. The company's headquarters is located in Ulsan, Korea.
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Neste still has Russian oil contracts lasting until the end of 2021, but the firm is not making any new supply agreements for Russian origin oil, reported Reuters with reference to the executive vice president of oil products' statement.

"We have not bought Russian crude oil on the spot market since the start of the war," Markku Korvenranta, executive VP for oil products, said.

"We are not making any new supply agreements of Russian origin oil products for now. The remaining contracts end by the end of the year 2022."

Crude traders said Neste has been buying cargoes of Norway's medium, sour grade Johan Sverdrup to replace Russia's key export grade Urals as well as some sweet North Sea crude. One trader said the refiner had bought at least three cargoes of Johan Sverdrup for April delivery.

Russian oil accounted for 77% of the refiner's crude and feedstock in 2021.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Neste Corporation signed definitive agreements for the establishment of a 50/50 JV with US-based Marathon Petroleum. The JV will produce renewable diesel following a conversion project of Marathon's refinery in Martinez, California (the Martinez Renewable Fuels project). The closing of the JV is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, including obtaining the necessary permits, which depend upon certification of a final Environmental Impact Report.

we remind that Neste has successfully concluded its first series of trial runs processing liquefied waste plastic at its Porvoo refinery in Finland. After kicking the series off with its first-ever industrial scale trial run with liquefied waste plastic in 2020, Neste has conducted additional runs in 2021. In the course of the trial runs, Neste has been able to upgrade liquefied waste plastic to drop-in solutions for plastic production and develop industrial scale capabilities to upgrade recycled feedstocks. Trials pave the way for continuous and commercial activities. Neste has set itself the goal of processing more than 1 MM tons of plastic waste per year from 2030 onwards.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Neste (Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. The company refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. The company is the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. In 2020, Neste's revenue stood at EUR11.8 billion, with 94% of the company’s comparable operating profit coming from renewable products.
MRC

The EIA projects that US energy consumption will grow through 2050, primarily driven by population and economic growth, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In this case, which reflects only current laws and regulations, renewable energy is the fastest-growing energy source through 2050, and petroleum remains the largest share of energy consumption throughout that period, followed by natural gas.

Transportation and industrial processes are the primary consumers of petroleum and other liquids in the US. The EIA projects that U.S. industrial sector energy consumption will grow more than twice as fast as any other end-use sector from 2021 to 2050. In the industrial sector, the most growth in demand for petroleum is for hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL) used as a feedstock. Petroleum remains a major fuel for non-manufacturing industries such as agriculture, construction, and mining, as well as for refining processes.

The EIA projects that US consumption of natural gas will keep growing, primarily driven by expectations that natural gas prices will remain low compared with historical levels. Starting in the early 2020s, the US industrial sector has been the largest consumer of natural gas, primarily by the chemical industries that use natural gas as a feedstock and by increased heat-and-power consumption across multiple industries. Specifically, the bulk chemicals industry is the largest industrial energy user throughout the projection period, and it contributes the most to the growth in energy consumption in the industrial sector as a whole.

The EIA projects that through the mid-2020s, the bulk chemicals industry will build facilities that use natural gas and HGL feedstocks to produce chemicals. After the first half of the 2020s, growth in natural gas and HGL feedstock consumption slows as growth in the bulk chemicals industry shifts to secondary chemical production, which focuses on chemicals produced from commodity chemicals, as opposed to HGLs or natural gas.

Petroleum and other liquids (mainly motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil) are the primary fuels consumed in the US transportation sector. Motor gasoline meets on-road passenger light-duty vehicle (LDV) travel demand, while diesel consumption meets our assumed increases in medium- and heavy-duty freight truck travel. As US travel demand continues to increase, consumption of petroleum and other liquids increases later in the projection period, when we assume fuel economy standards remain constant.

As MRC informed earlier, EIA forecasts that crude oil prices will fall in 2022 and 2023 from 2021 levels, according to its January 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). In the fourth quarter of 2021, the price of Brent crude oil, the international pricing benchmark, averaged USD79 per barrel (b). EIA forecasts that the price of Brent will average USD75/b in 2022 and USD68/b in 2023.

We remind that oil supply will soon overtake demand as some producers are set to pump at or above all-time highs, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said last Wednesday, while demand holds up despite the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
MRC

Evonik and Asiga collaborate on photopolymer-based 3D printing for large-scale industrial manufacturing, said the company.

The specialty chemicals company Evonik and Australia’s 3D printer manufacturer Asiga are strengthening their collaboration in photopolymer-based 3D printing. Both companies aim to drive forward 3D printing large-scale industrial manufacturing by extending today’s capabilities of photo-curing technologies. Evonik is contributing its expertise in development and manufacturing of ready-to-use photopolymer materials. Asiga, in turn, is bringing its innovative strength in DLP 3D printers with their open material architecture to the joint effort.

Evonik’s new INFINAM photopolymers are ready-to-use high-performance formulations that can be processed seamlessly on Asiga’s DLP 3D printers.

Asiga is an innovation driver in desktop stereolithography, launching the world's first LED based DLP 3D printer in 2011. Today the company continues to focus on a range of process monitoring technologies which control part accuracy and production stability across many industries including medical and general manufacturing. Asiga's product line covers a broad range from powerful desktop 3D printers including their MAX series to large format floor standing such as the PRO 4K.

Last year, Evonik introduced first ready-to-use formulations of its new photopolymers product line for industrial 3D printing applications. INFINAM® TI 3100 L leads to high toughness and impact-resistant 3D parts which can withstand strong impact or permanent mechanical effects such as pressing or impact. INFINAM® ST 6100 L is setting-up a new benchmark in the category of high strength polymer resins. It combines tensile strength of 89 MPa, flexural strength of 145 MPa and HDT of 120 °C, and thus fills the material gap in ultra-high strength photopolymers. INFINAM® RG 3101 L combines excellent impact resistance with high-temperature resistance while exhibiting long-lasting thermomechanical performance.

Evonik’s 3D printing activities are bundled in the group’s additive manufacturing innovation growth field. The strategic focus is on the development and manufacturing industrial ready-to-use high-performance materials for all major polymer-based 3D-printing technologies. The specialty chemicals company thus drives 3D printing as a large-scale industrial manufacturing technology along the entire value chain. In this context, Evonik has organized its product range under the new INFINAM brand.

As MRC reported before, Evonik is investing a three-digit million-euro sum in the construction of a new production plant for bio-based and fully biodegradable rhamnolipids. The decision to build the plant follows a breakthrough in Evonik's research and development. Rhamnolipids are biosurfactants and serve as active ingredients in shower gels and detergents. Demand for environ-mentally friendly surfactants is growing rapidly worldwide.

We remind that in February, 2020, Dow and Evonik entered into an exclusive technology partnership. Together, they plan to bring a unique method for directly synthesizing propylene glycol (PG) from propylene and hydrogen peroxide to market maturity.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and generated sales of EUR12.2 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of EUR1.91 billion in 2020. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable and sustainable solutions for customers. About 33,000 employees work together for a common purpose: to improve life today and tomorrow.

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